Draper v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1959
Citation profile
2,545 federal appellate · 244 district · 3,257 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7,016 later decisions (84 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably Terry v. Ohio (1968), Illinois v. Gates (1983)
2,545 federal appellate · 244 district · 3,257 state decisions — followed in 50 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedDraper v. United States (from Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Carroll v. United States · Brinegar v. United States · Johnson v. United States · Weeks v. United States
Cited together with Brinegar v. United States · Aguilar v. Texas · Carroll v. United States · Spinelli v. United States · Jones v. United States
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 7,016 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the facts and circumstances within their [the arresting officers'] knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information [are] sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that”
162 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““(2) make arrests without warrant for violations of any law of the United States relating to narcotic drugs * * * where the violation is committed in the presence of the person making the arrest or where such person has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such violation.””
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” “The Commissioner * * * and agents, of the Bureau of Narcotics * * may— # * * * * “(2) make arrests without warrant for violations of any law of the United States relating to narcotic drugs * * or marijuana * * * where the violation is committed in the presence of the person making the arrest or where such person has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such violation.” “If it did, [says Draper] the arrest, though without a warrant, was lawful and the subsequent search of petitioner’s person and the seizure of the found [marijuana] were validly made incident to a lawful arrest * * 6 “ ‘In dealing with probable cause, * * * as the very name implies, we deal with probabilities. These are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.’ ””
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.